


Out of Reach

by ArgentLives



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: F/F, Height Differences, Law School, Pre-Series, Study Sessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 16:37:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5935368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentLives/pseuds/ArgentLives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eve loves using her height to her advantage, especially when it comes to pissing off her girlfriend—but Annalise has plenty of her own tricks up her sleeve. And hey, what she lacks in inches, she certainly makes up for in cunning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Reach

**Author's Note:**

> Because Annalise is so wonderfully short and Eve is so wonderfully tall and I live for height differences like this. Set pre-series when Annalise and Eve were in law school together, obviously. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not condone putting off much-needed studying to make out with your girlfriend. Only sometimes. Responsibility first, friends!

The library was probably one of her least favorite places to work. Really, she hated it here—the pin-drop silence, the tense atmosphere, the constant rustle of papers and scratch of a pen or a highlighter here and there, and worst of all, the feeling of being watched. But Annalise loved it, and she loved Annalise, so. Library it was. She sighed, trying not to think about all the other things she’d rather be doing right now, and underlined yet another piece of information she knew she’d need to come back to later when she was feeling less out of it. She blinked hard and kept her nose buried in her notes, eyes fixed and focused on the words that were already starting to blur together, a headache steadily starting to bloom between her temples.

God, contract law was _so fucking boring_. Her eyelids began to droop as she read and re-read a sentence for what must’ve been the fifth time, still not at all absorbing the words, her thoughts long-since having already entered solid day-dream territory.

… _a buyer in ordinary course of business_ …this room was too warm… _may buy for cash, by exchange of other property_ …she really needed to clean her apartment this weekend… _or on secured or unsecured credit_ …had she locked the door on her way out?... _and may acquire goods or documents_ …the table was maybe more comfortable than it looked… _the of title under a preexisting contract for sale_ …it couldn’t hurt to lay down, rest her head, just for a minute…

“Eve,” a voice whispered her name, pulling her away from the brink of sleep. Still, it sounded miles away, her mind all hazy and thoughts foggy and thick, as she struggled to pull herself out of her drowsing. “Hey. Eve,” the voice—Annalise, her mind supplied, finally starting to catch up—continued in a fervent whisper, this time with a definite edge of impatience. Eve cracked an eye open to glare at Annalise across the table, but didn’t respond, now mostly awake but stubborn as ever. Idly, she wondered when Annalise had sat back down, and how long she'd been there for, a murky memory of her getting up at some point swimming through the back of her mind. _“Eve._ Come on. I’m talking to you.”

“Oh, excuse me?” Eve snorted, finally relenting, rubbing at her eyes and thanking her good foresight not to wear makeup—always a bad idea, on nights leading up to a big exam, where all-nighters were pretty much a guarantee. “So _now_ you can talk to me, miss we’re-not-allowed-to-have-simple-conversation-because-you’re-distracting-me?”

“Well, in my defense, you _were_ distracting me. You know I work better on my own when I’m really focused on something. But I need…I need, um…”

She coughed, averting her gaze, and Eve followed Annalise’s line of vision to the bookshelves. Her brows furrowed, and she stared back at Annalise in confusion, wondering why her friend was glowering at the rows of books as though they’d personally offended her.

“You need a book?”

“Yeah,” Annalise set her jaw, looking thoroughly annoyed about it. “That.”

“Okay, so…why are you asking me? Get it yourself. After all, I’d hate to disrupt your rhythm.”

Annalise scowled at her, wrinkling her nose in distaste, like it was physically paining her to say it. “I can’t.”

“You can’t what?”

“I can’t get it myself because the book I need—it’s on the top shelf.”

“What do you—oh.” Eve’s eyes lit up in delight as she realized what Annalise was asking, a wicked smile curling her lips. “Oh, this is just too good. You can’t reach it, can you?”

 Annalise’s withering glare was answer enough, and Eve sprung out of her seat with renewed energy, suddenly much more awake as she smiled cheekily and waved an arm at the rows and rows of book shelves. “Well, lead the way.”

Annalise sent her a look that was altogether unamused, her lips pressed tight together in an unhappy line as she got up to move around her without another word. She didn't even look back to make sure Eve was following as she made her way across the library, towards wherever the book in question was hiding, just moved with purposeful strides, clearly trying to maintain her dignity, as Eve trailed along with a spring in her step and palpable glee.  

“It’s that one,” she bit out, finally coming to a stop in the second to last row, pointing up at the top shelf of the case she stood in front of. Which was...supremely unhelpful. Eve quirked an eyebrow at her, silently urging her to elaborate. Annalise rolled her eyes. “ _Contract, Cases, and Doctrines_. The one towards the middle; it’s written right on the side. Hard to miss.”

Eve hummed to herself, reaching her arm up and letting her fingers trail gently along the spines of each book, purposely dragging it out. Finally, she relented, and plucked the book off the shelf with only minimal struggle, silently thanking the solid five inches she had on Annalise.

“This it?”

“Yeah, obviously,” Annalise reached out, the tension leaving her shoulders, looking all kinds of relieved. Until, of course, she recognized the mischievous glint in Eve’s eye, realizing a moment too late that she wasn’t going to let her off that easy.

Eve held the book far over her head, stretching her arm out as far as it would go and keeping her grip around it tight, far out of Annalise’s reach. “Just how badly do you need this book?”

“Oh, c’mon, Eve, just—give it—to me,” Annalise huffed, trying in vain to reach for the book, and when that didn’t work, pulling at Eve’s arm to try to get her to let go. Which—yeah. Not happening. This was just too _fun_. And the more Annalise reached for it, the closer she had to get, until she was more or less pressed up against her—always a plus, really.

Eve smirked, wiggling her eyebrows at her, reveling in the frustrated groan she was rewarded with as Annalise realized exactly what she was about to say. “Give you what, exactly?”

“Oh, real cute,” Annalise fell back, and Eve briefly mourned the loss off contact. She crossed her arms over her chest, leveling Eve with the nastiest look she could muster—which, admittedly, Annalise was very good at. They stood apart for a moment, Eve with her back pressed up against the bookcase, book still held high above her head, Annalise quietly seething, glaring daggers at her outstretched arm. Eve lowered her arm a fraction, shaking out the tightness in her muscles a bit (she really needed to get to the gym, if holding a textbook really took this much effort), and Annalise followed her movements with eyes sharp as a hawk. As soon as she noticed the arm start to drop, she lunged, closing the small distance between them and clutching at—

—an empty space, because Eve had managed to pull it away again just in a nick of time. The sudden movement left Annalise falling forward, and Eve had to hold her steady with her free hand as she fell against her to keep her from knocking them both over. “Ah, ah, ah,” Eve tutted, holding the book even further out of reach again. “Too slow, _darling_.”

Annalise let out a frustrated noise in the back of her throat but made no move to step back, instead dropping her head against Eve’s shoulder in exasperation, slumping against her a bit so that her weight pushed Eve further up against the bookshelf, the corner of something digging into her back. She opened her mouth to gloat about her triumph, but broke off in a gasp as she felt Annalise tug her shirt down a bit, just enough to gain access to the smooth skin beneath it, and press her lips against the exposed area just below her collarbone.

“What—what are you—ah,” Eve stuttered as Annalise’s lips moved from her collarbone to her throat, trailing kisses up her neck and then along her jaw, stopping briefly to nip at her ear. Eve let herself be pushed back, not minding the hard edges of the books poking at her from behind in the least, not when she had this. In the tense quiet of the library, she probably should have been embarrassed by the low moan she failed to hold back as Annalise’s fingers trailed teasingly up and down her sides, but she couldn’t really bring herself to care. Especially not when Annalise’s lips finally found her own, quieting her as she sighed happily against her mouth, wet and warm and inviting, melting into the kiss. She hadn’t even noticed she’d started to lower her arm, thoroughly distracted, to wrap it around Annalise’s waist, until the damned book was plucked deftly out of her slackened grip.

Her eyes snapped open—and when had she even closed them?—as Annalise stepped back. She struggled to breathe normally again, to get her racing heart under control. Annalise grinned at her in triumph, the book safely tucked underneath her arm.

“You know,” Eve huffed, attempting to sound put-out, but she was pretty sure the effect was lost when her voice came out just as breathless as ever, “you could’ve just said please.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” Annalise's grin only widened, and Eve couldn’t help but grin back. It was nice to see her smiling again, relaxing after having been tense and on edge all week, driving herself up a wall studying for this thing—even if she had just totally one-upped her.

“Yeah, well. Cheater.”

“No, just resourceful.”

“If that’s what you want to call it.” Eve shook her head, reluctantly conceding defeat, and pushed herself away from the book case to take a step towards Annalise. It didn’t matter, really—she had more pressing things on her mind, anyway. “So,” she said, still breathing hard, her eyes fixed on Annalise’s lips. At least, she noted with some satisfaction, Annalise was faring much the same, looking properly flustered as Eve pulled her closer. The book fell to ground with a dull _thunk_ , apparently forgotten,as herhandssettled comfortably on Eve's waist. “How do you feel about a study break?”

**Author's Note:**

> The book title and the little snippet about contract law are completely random things I googled because despite wanting to go to law school myself I don't know much about it at all, just that apparently everyone thinks contract law is painfully boring but unfortunately it's one of the required classes everyone needs to take as a 1L, so...what can ya do. I also know that it's like massive amounts of reading and students are constantly holed up in the library, but I feel like Eve would've had her own way of doing things.


End file.
